An Acquired Aesthetic
by Azereaux
Summary: With Toudou's obsession on beauty, it's a mystery why he concerns himself so much with Makishima. Arakita just has to take his opinion on the subject too far and Toudou tries to defend his rival's honour. TouMaki if you squint.


It's a little weird to everybody – ironic really – that Toudou, who always whines about beauty, bothers with Makishima at all.

Everyone could agree that the Sohoku climber was... something else. But Toudou's idea of something else and their idea of something else were completely opposite. His hair, mostly a deep shade of green, made his skin look extra pale and just a little sickly – Toudou thought it suited him. His limbs, long and skinny, made his gait look funny from behind, swaying back and forth like tree branches in a storm ready to break off – Toudou thought he was built as the perfect climber. His smile made others wonder if he was really enjoying himself or just being polite – Toudou defended him, saying his smile was improving and that sooner or later it would be perfected and ready to show off to the cameras and to the fangirls. But, the others would ask, what fangirls?

Different strokes for different folks they guess.

Arakita has another opinion.

"Ugly," he said one day after Toudou had finished making his daily phone call to the Sohoku climber. They had just finish practice, all piling into the locker room on weary limbs, wanting to wash the sweat of the day from their bodies. "Or creepy. Whichever one is worse."

"Well I _never_," Toudou began, feeling offended on his rival's behalf, and placed his hand over his heart. "I never want to hear you, of all people, speaking of Maki-chan ever again in that way."

"In what way? The truth?" Arakita teased, deciding to bait him on. He had meant to leave his comment as that – just a comment, but his teammate's flair for the over-dramatic had made it too amusing to drop the conversation. Arakita began shuffling through the contents of his gym bag, wanting to switch his jersey for his shirt, but from the corner of his eye he watched as Toudou turned away from him, facing his open locker and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Maki-chan isn't ugly or creepy. He's just... different."

"Okay, if he ain't ugly or creepy, then he's gross."

"He is not!" Toudou snapped his phone shut and placed it down on the locker bench beside his own gym bag. He took off the hair band and let his hair fall around his face, tucking a loose lock behind his ear. He inspected his reflection in the mirror hanging at the back of his locker and smiled. He thought his black hair framed his features nicely, contrasting against pale skin and light eyes. "His aesthetics are well, you know."

Arakita had found his shirt balled up at the bottom of his bag and fished it out, turning to Toudou and grimacing at his vain display. "Know what?"

"An acquired taste."

He laughed. "An acquired taste? What the fuck. Stop trying to justify him. He's fucking weird, with that Christmas tree head."

"I don't see the problem." He began thumbing through the stash of hair bands in his locker. "Everybody likes Christmas."

"That was a lame comeback."

Toudou shrugged. "Not like I have much to fight against with you, someone who doesn't understand beauty at all."

"I trust my sense of beauty or whatever the shit over yours any day. No one else would wear hair bands that lame."

He gave Arakita an unimpressed stare. "Uh huh, keep telling yourself that. You, who always makes stupid faces like these –" Toudou opened one eye wide and bared his clenched teeth, curling his upper lip as high as he could "– telling _me_ what aesthetics are! What a joke! You shouldn't do it too often anyway. You'll get premature wrinkles."

"Hah? I don't do that!"

"Yes, you do!"

"I can't help it, it's just a reaction."

"Keep telling yourself that, ugly."

"Fuck you Toudou, you're ugly!"

He pointed at Arakita. "See, look – you're doing it again!"

"I'm not doing shit!"

"Your face, look at your own face!" He reached into his locker and pulled the mirror out, and in his haste knocked over the container that held the hair bands to the floor. He ignored it in favour of showing Arakita his own reflection. "Why would I ever trust a face like this to be the authority on beauty?!"

"You little –"

What began as simple teasing had suddenly become personal, their argument reaching a volume that could no longer be ignored by the other club members, who began to stare in the direction of the two. Arakita, who had been in the middle of changing out of his jersey – the zipper tugged halfway down his chest – was standing with his hands curled into fists, looking ready to knock the beauty off from Toudou's face for a week at least. Meanwhile, Toudou had the mirror still raised at Arakita, as if it would crack from his reflection and prove to him just how far down in the negatives he was on a scale from one to ten. It was odd seeing their rough talking and acting upperclassman so worked up – for a lack of better words – in a beauty battle. They had never heard the words aesthetic and beautiful thrown around in the club room as much as they had today, and someone had to intervene before it escalated from just words into fists flying.

Shinkai stood up to the test.

Arakita felt a hand place itself gently on his shoulder and he flinched, turning in surprise that he hadn't heard him walking up at all. "Yasutomo," he said.

"What?!" He barked back.

"You shouldn't push Jinpachi that far. You know how strongly he feels about that Chiba climber."

"You're taking his side?" Arakita said.

"Not at all." He looked at Toudou, who had the mirror lowered now, feeling a little guiltier than Arakita had for disturbing the peace of the clubroom. "I'm surprised. Usually you're more level-headed than this."

"Well, what can I say," Toudou replied, combing his hair back with his fingers. He was looking at anywhere but Shinkai, focusing instead on the top of his locker at the little bit of rust forming along the edges. "You said it yourself; I care about Maki-chan's well-being. That includes if anyone insults him."

Arakita rolled his eyes. "Can you believe this guy..."

He felt a small squeeze against his shoulder before Shinkai let go and walked toward Toudou. He leaned down and began collecting the scattered hair bands, placing them into the container. Then he stood back up.

Toudou looked down at Shinkai's outstretched hand, offering him to take his possessions back. "Ah, thank you," he said, replacing the mirror and then the container back into his locker, but not before picking out his favourite white hair band.

"Jinpachi," he began, "I think it's admirable that you'd defend your rival's honour, but please, remember that you don't have to get so worked up. Whether he means it or not you know Yasutomo insults everybody."

"That's true..."

Shinkai hummed, taking a power bar from his pocket and offering it to Toudou, who politely refused. He was glad to have at least calmed one person down. He ripped the wrapper and took a bite before turning his attention back to Arakita. He no longer had his fists clenched at his sides, but instead he had his arms crossed, looking down at the floor.

"Yasutomo."

"What."

"Yasutomo, look at me."

Reluctantly, he tore his gaze from the ground and faced Shinkai. "What," he stated again, feigning indifference but feeling the guilt finally starting to settle into his gut.

"You should calm down."

"Who are you to tell me how to act? You always get into arguments with Fuku-chan."

"You're right. I do." Shinkai took another bite, unaffected by the edge in Arakita's tone. "However, we have a history and it doesn't affect the club activities. I'm just concerned; you usually don't provoke people like this."

Arakita looked off to the side. "I guess I got a little too carried away."

Shinkai reached again into his pocket. "Want one?" he asked, offering a power bar to Arakita.

"Save it for your own fat ass," he replied, though there was no malice in his tone.

He smiled. "Thank you, Yasutomo, for your concern. Now, you both should apologize."

An awkward silence developed between Arakita and Toudou, both persons refusing to be the first to admit they were wrong. Arakita was grinding his teeth, nails digging into his arms and leaving little red marks. He was having a personal crisis. Like hell he wanted to apologize for telling the truth, and sure, he might have started the argument by baiting Toudou along, but he wasn't the one that took it too far. Okay, he thought, maybe he _was_ the one who did push a little too hard but still, he didn't want to admit it out loud. He didn't want to shoulder all the blame.

Toudou was twirling a lock of hair around his finger, wondering to himself whether to apologize or not. He felt responsible for turning the argument for the worse when he had attacked Arakita personally, but he hadn't considered that his teammate would have reacted so violently when he told him he had no aesthetic sensibilities. Maybe he was more sensitive to his lack of charm than he seemed, Toudou mused. However, an attack on Maki-chan was unforgivable; when someone insulted him it always became personal, too, as illogical as it sounded. But it was Toudou's way of justifying to himself that it was really all Arakita's fault.

"Well," Shinkai said to break the silence. "Somebody say something. Don't make me get Juichi involved."

"Fine, fine! Whatever!" Arakita spoke up. If it would get Shinkai to stop playing mommy he'd say it first. He looked at Toudou and through clenched teeth he said, "I'm sorry."

Toudou was still twirling his hair around his finger when he said, "You weren't clear enough. What did you say?"

"Shinkai!" Arakita yelled, exasperated.

"Well go on, say it clearly so he can hear you."

"Fuck – fine! Toudou, you little shit, I'm sorry for making fun of you!"

"Not just me," he said, smirking.

"And that Sohoku climber!"

"Hmm... well, you sounded just a little bit _too_ insincere with that last part but I guess I can accept it." He put his hair band onto his head. "After all, what can I expect from a brute like you."

"Jinpachi," Shinkai said, "you have to apologize too."

He lost his smirk. "What did _I_ do?"

"You've hurt Yasutomo's feelings –"

"He did not, I'm not that delicate!"

"– and now you've got to own up to your actions."

"But I didn't start the fight," he said. But the look on Shinkai's face told him he wasn't going to accept that excuse and Toudou sighed, facing Arakita. "I guess I was being a little too harsh."

"What? I didn't hear you."

"I'm sorry! You don't have no sense of beauty - you just have a very limited idea of what it is."

Arakita shrugged. "Good enough, I guess."

"However," Toudou continued, "I feel the need to restate my position that Maki-chan is indeed not creepy, but in fact he is a great climber. I remember the first time we had an intense competition with each other over the hills of –"

Before he could continue, Arakita raised a hand in the air. "Save it. I don't wanna hear your life story."

Toudou got offended. "This is why someone like you could never appreciate the rush of a mountain side!"

"_No one cares._"

Shinkai stuffed the rest of his power bar into his mouth and opened a new one. He was going to need all the energy he could get.

ooOoo

Makishima sneezed.

"Need a tissue?" Tadokoro asked, reaching into his bag.

"No. Thanks though," he said, rubbing his nose.

Tadokoro gave a strong pat against his back and laughed. "Allergy season is over. You know what that means, huh? There's no other reason to sneeze unless someone must be talking about you!"

Makishima grimaced. "There's only one guy I know."

"Well if it's him, you're lucky you know it's not anything bad."

"Heh. Good or bad, whenever that guy talks about me it's always troublesome. I bet you he's causing problems right now."

"You don't know that. Sometimes you've got to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I'm sure everything's fine there in Hakone. Besides, there wouldn't be any kings to take down if their teamwork's always in constant jeopardy!" Tadokoro wiped the sweat from his forehead on the back of his hand. "C'mon, let's get washed up."

"I guess you're right," he said, hanging his helmet on the handle of his bike. And when Tadokoro disappeared into the clubroom Makishima couldn't help but gaze off into the distance, past the clouds and the setting sun toward the direction he knew where Hakone Academy stood.

_Toudou Jinpachi, _he thought, _please stop._

* * *

**AN:** Who has fallen into the pits of bicycle hell? Me! I had this as a little idea and I'm usually really slow to write anything, but this just wouldn't leave me alone. I'm surprised I pumped this out in one night considering how long it usually takes me to write one chapter of anything, so apologies if I messed anything up. I guess consider this a warm-up in characterization if I make anymore Yowamushi Pedal fics. Anyway, thanks for giving this a shot!


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